Conventional plant breeders [have] already optimized factors like plant size and [are] working on disease resistance. Based smack in the center of North America’s corn and soybean belts, plant biologist Long knew that the dovetailing issues of climate change and population growth posed a threat for the new century. Down the hall from Long’s laboratory, fellow plant biologist and biochemist Donald Ort had begun to ask whether improving photosynthesis efficiency would improve crop yields.
“Plant photosynthesis didn’t evolve for efficiency; it evolved for reproductive success. It also evolved at a time that is very different from now, so it’s not very well suited to current conditions. As conditions continue to change, that provides further challenges,” says Robert Blankenship, professor emeritus of botany and chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis
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